Hodgdon Shipbuilding and Mills

$15.00

by Barbara Rumsey
The East Boothbay Series, #1
Published in 1995

The growth of a nineteenth-century Maine coastal village unfolds in this detailed history of East Boothbay’s Hodgdon shipyard and tidemill. Focusing on the early period, when the village was known as Hodgdons Mills, a wealth of information provides insight into a pioneer settlement as it evolved into a commercial center.
One man was crucial, and in profiling Caleb Hodgdon’s enterprises—shipyard, mill, and real estate—the develop-ment of East Boothbay emerges. A family enclave of four houses in the 1820s became a booming shipbuilding village within twenty years, its residents drawn by the opportunities Caleb Hodgdon created after settling there in 1826. Commerce and community expanded with the appearance of homes, stores, roads, other shipyards, a ferry, a church, and a school. An influx of skilled men—sparmakers, blockmakers, sailmakers, blacksmiths, and shipwrights—with their families guaranteed a fortunate village.
Hodgdon shipbuilding, now owned by Caleb’s great-great-grandson, has a 180-year record. The first one hundred years of the shipyard’s activities and the accomplishments of the first two Hodgdon generations are profiled. All known vessels built by the Hodgdons from 1816 to 1996 are listed, and many previously unknown Hodgdon-built vessels have been identified. Though gathered from fragmentary sources, this history is a testament to an enduring work ethic whose monument is in wood.